My training History: I trained less than one year before competing in my first powerlifting meet as a teenager back in 1983. Before leaving the sport partially due to injuries in 2005 I achieved my elitefts status in the 198,220,242,275 & 308 weight class. Throughout these years I did have a 3 year run in the bodybuilding world. I have  degenerative joint disease, have had two shoulder surgeries (right shoulder now needs replaced), one full hip replacement, knee surgery, and herniation's in all three regions of my spine, Bone spurs (all joints). I can't even begin to list the number of muscle tears I have had, surgical and non surgical.  I am "The Mashed Up Meathead" and this is my story. 

You can find my training log archives HERE and my most current training log posts HERE. 

My best lifts are behind be but my best training is yet to come. 

* Unless otherwise noted the tempo of the work sets is about 1/2 of what most would consider normal. In most cases, if I did the set with normal temp what I fail at with 8-10 reps in training I could do for 20 reps with a normal tempo. This is to keep the joint stress down while increase the stress on the muscle. I have found this to work best for me provided the conditions listed in my training history above.

Thursday, arm day.

 

I did plan on training arms yesterday, and I actually came in and did a couple movements, but it wasn't happening. Elbows hurt, joints hurt, so shut it down and left for the night. Decided to come back Thursday, and do the training session instead. I chalk it up to trying to fit too many training sessions in a row, because of this seminar I'll be presenting at this weekend, so a lesson learned. I tried, but it's not worth, at this point with my training it's not worth getting hurt, to have a set back, especially for just a fucking arm day.

 

Fat rope pushdowns, super-set it with cable rope face curls,

4 warm up sets of 10 to 15 repetitions, 4 work sets of 8 to 12 repetitions. All sets to failure.

 

Kettlebell tricep extensions, super-set with Tsunami grip chain curls,

3 warm up sets of 12 to 15 repetitions, 4 work sets of 8 to 10 repetitions. All sets to failure.

 

Seated tricep pushdowns using the pushdown machine, super-set with hammer curls,

2 warm up sets of 10 reps, 4 work sets of 8 to 12 repetitions. All sets to failure.

 

Close grip barbell push ups.

To do this exercise I lie a barbell inside of the power rack, so it's at the very bottom of the rack. Then using a close grip with a Texas power bar, that would be two fingers on the smooth. I did a total of 100 repetitions. I cannot tell you how many sets it took to do this, but it was a lot. I believe the first set I got about 25, and then after that not one set was greater than 8 repetitions, and a lot of the sets towards the end were 3 to 4 reps.

 

  Seated barbell curls with just the barbell.

On this exercise I sat on the end of the bench, and placed the barbell on my thighs, and then I curl from my thighs to the top curl position. It essentially is a half-rep curl, with 100 repetitions performed the same way that I did the barbell push ups. This took a hell of a lot longer to do, because it was a lot harder to do than what the push ups were. The first set of this one I got about 18, 15 to 18 repetitions, and then from there is was 3 to 4, 5, maybe 6 reps at the top, I really can't remember, except for the fact it took a hell of a long time.

For these exercises that I'm doing 100 repetitions on I use a 20 count in my head between sets, if you even want to call them sets, because it's really more of rest/pause than it is actually a set.